Firm promises payments to Moberly for artificial sweetener plant

COLUMBIA — The former CEO of a company behind a Missouri artificial sweetener plant has agreed that his new company will pay Moberly $250,000 by Monday and $3.2 million more within a month.

Mamtek U.S. Inc. planned to employ several hundred people at a plant in Moberly. The city issued $39 million in industrial bonds, and the state offered $17 million in incentives. The plant is still under construction, and Mamtek missed a bond payment.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that company CEO Bruce Cole agreed to the payment schedule in exchange for Moberly transferring control of the project to American Sucralose Manufacturing Inc., which was formed by Mamtek principal investors.

The company was to provide completion plans and a cost estimate to get the plant into operation.